Caring for your nails is a topic that often doesn’t get enough attention. Nails that split, hangnails, and bitten nails are all unsightly and uncomfortable, if not downright painful so today we’re taking a look at some simple tips to make sure your nails are strong, healthy, and attractive.
Feed Your Nails
Just like the rest of your body, your nails need the right nutrients to grow strong. B vitamins of many kinds are important to nail health and can be found in meat and animal products, as well as leafy green vegetables. A deficit of B- vitamins can cause your nails to become brittle, or to change color.
Iron is also important for strong and healthy nails - iron helps your red blood cells transport oxygen around your body, including to your nail beds, meaning low iron levels can result in weaker nails, brittle nails, or the appearance of ridges or other changes in their appearance.
There’s no one ‘vitamin for nails’, there’s a whole selection working together, so it’s important to make sure you’re eating a varied diet and taking supplements for anything that diet doesn’t provide.
Don’t Bite!
Biting your nails isn’t just a bad, unsightly habit, it can cause real health problems. It can lead to chipping or splintering of your teeth, cause bad breath - as you pick up bacteria from your hands, and increase the risk of ingrown nails and infections from broken skin on your fingers.
Finding a way to stop is one of the most important ways you can care for your nails.
The most important thing to do is recognize what triggers the habit - is it boredom? Stress? Trying to ignore a particular emotion? Make a note when you find yourself biting your nails and look for the pattern so you can understand it. Sometimes just being more conscious of the impulse can help you resist it.
Give yourself a reward for a day when you don’t bite your nails, but use the stick as well as the carrot. There are lots of bad-tasting substances you can paint your nails with, but there’s one option that’s easy to make at home. Chop up some garlic and let it infuse in olive oil overnight, then paint it onto your nails and let it dry. The olive oil will nourish your nail and the garlic smell will remind you not to bite!
Avoid Artificial Nails
Long artificial nails are a fashion trend to avoid. You need to file your natural nails to make them stick, which thins and damages them, and chemicals in the acrylics and glues can further damage and irritate your nails and the skin around them. Removing them also often requires soaking them in acetone.
Acrylic nails leave your natural nails thin, weak, and dried out, For healthy nails, avoid, avoid, avoid!
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